Cradle
by Omnicat
Summary: Leafe Knights protect their Princess, no matter what the cost. / Sasame x Takako


**Title:** Cradle

**Author:** Omnicat

**Unofficially Adapted From:** Junichi Sato's _Prétear_

**Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge:** All of the above.

**Warnings:** Violence of the Prétear & Knights vs demon larvae kind.

**Characters & Pairings:** Sasame, Takako, Go

**Summary:** Leafe Knights protect their Princess, no matter what the cost. / Sasame x Takako

**Author's Note:** This is set during the time Takako was the Prétear, not long after Hayate offered her his hand. She's beginning to look to him for strength and support, but doesn't feel as confident with the other Knights yet. The battles against the demon larva are getting harder and harder as, due to Takako's growing prowess, the current Princess of Disaster is getting more desperate.

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

**Cradle**

Takako's chest heaved when she lowered her Fire Axe. The weapon's Leafe flickered and dispersed, and a hearbeat later, Takako fell from the sky. Sasame was right there to catch her and put her to her feet.

"Let go, Goh. You're spent. Don't push yourself." He caught Goh, too, when he came out of the prét, and whispered into his ear: "I'll take over from here. You can't take the front line anymore, find a covert position to aid us in the back."

The Fire Knight nodded tiredly, silently thanking Sasame for not dismissing him completely, and hovered off. Sasame turned to Takako, who had her face raised to the skies.

"Where's Hayate?" she asked, fear evident in her voice.

"He's fighting the other demon larva further north along with the others, Princess, but we don't have time to go there."

As if to illustrate his point, the demon larva she'd defeated as the Fire Prétear disappeared, only to be replaced by another one that unleashed a hail of rubble by slamming its vicious tail right through a five-story building. Sasame shielded Takako with his body, drawing his cloak close around them before the shockwave threw them off their feet. Unable to keep his footing, Sasame did everything in his power to take the blow of their fall, and formed a protective cage around her with his arms until they were brought to an abrupt halt by a tree. The air was knocked out of him when his back collided with the trunk, and he rolled over, gasping for breath.

"Ah..." Takako sat up shakily, clutching her spinning head as she looked around. "Oh! Sasame, are you alright?"

"Please..." he wheezed, holding out his hand to her. "Princess, let me be your shield."

"Don't push yourself! Isn't that what you just told Goh?" she chided, but grabbed his shaking hand in both of hers.

The process of préting with Sasame was always a pleasant, calming one, and Takako loved the feeling of fulfilment it brought almost as much as she loved to be préted with Hayate. Sasame's Leafe was like cool and sweet water in a crystal goblet, or a clear day when sound travels far. The reassuring settling of the power in her lower belly cleared her head and helped her focus a bit. But as he slipped under her skin and she rested her back against his chest, as she envisioned the secured feeling of a completed prét, she instantly knew his previous battle and the subsequent hit he took while protecting her had left their marks. Still he was determined to fight.

"_Let's go. We have to get this demon larva away from the residential area."_

Takako swallowed thickly, wishing she was préted with Hayate. "Right."

"_Don't worry, I'm here to guide and protect you."_

She shot into the air to join her Knight of Plants.

"The core, we need to find the core!" he yelled, cracking his vine whip so it curled around the demon's tail. He was almost yanked right out of the sky by the force with which the larva retaliated. Takako launched a Sonic Arrow at the base of its destructive tail without bothering to hold back on power. At Sasame's instruction she used a series of small sound bombs to get the monster's full attention and lure it towards the forest, closer to the Plant Knight's prerogative - and closer to where Hayate was - all the while keeping an eye out for the demon core. The larva got more and more furious, its attacks increasing in frequency and strength - but losing in accuracy, Sasame reminded her. Though Takako dodged the elastic extremities as well as she could, Sasame's strength was depleting rapidly due to all the blows he had to take.

"_Alright, that's far enough."_ he said when they had lost the town out of sight. _"We have to finish this quickly, or we won't have the strength left necessary to destroy it. Find the core!"_

Takako tried, but had to dodge so much she could barely get a good look at the demon larva's body, let alone search it for the demon core. The vines and occasional fireball provided by the Knights of Plants and Fire only seemed make things worse.

"I can't!" she cried out. "Sasame, I can't find it!"

"_This isn't working... You have to stop moving around so much, Princess."_

"What? But if I -"

"_Hold still."_ Sasame said urgently. _"See to it that you find the core and don't worry about taking a few hits. That's what I'm here for."_

The thought horrified Takako. "But Sas-"

A horrible scream resounded from their right as the demon larva whipped its tail, only to be cut short as a green-clad body slammed into the ground. Takako screamed his name, tears welling up in her eyes.

"_Princess! Princess! Takako, please, pull yourself together!"_ Sasame urged inside her head as one of the demon's tentacle-like limbs shot out towards the Prétear. He braced himself to shield Takako from the blow while she flinched and sobbed.

"No, Sasame!"

"_Takako,"_ he said, gritting his teeth against the pain. _"If you don't find and destroy the core, none of us are going to make it out of here."_

"What's wrong with this world?" she yelled, and turned to face the demon larva, still sobbing. With Sasame to counter the blows aimed at her, Takako was able to study their enemy and concentrate on her task, until finally -

"I found it!"

And not a moment too soon. Sasame lowered his shield to allow her to attack. The demon larva shot out two tentacles when it saw her Sonic Arrow approach. One was destroyed by the Arrow as it passed through it before piercing the demon core. Sasame was too weakened to stop the other.

**I-oOo-I**

Goh watched in horror as the last tentacle pierced the Sound Prétear's body.

"Takako!"

His voice echoed in the eerie silence while the demon larva dissolved in bubbles of Leafe and her body dropped to the ground. Goh began to run when Takako glowed, signalling the termination of her prét. He ran like he had never run before, like he wasn't dangerously depleted of Leafe but just the opposite. He found her cradled in Sasame's arms like a broken doll, her limp head only held up by Sasame's support. Her clothes were bloodied and torn, and Sasame looked frail with his cloak and tunic ripped off, in just his green-rapidly-turning-red shirt.

"Is she..." Goh didn't have the breath or the guts to finish his sentence.

"She's not breathing, but her heart is still -" Sasame said, his voice quiet with panic. Tears streamed down his face along with a small trickle of blood. "Takako, you can't just die like this."

Goh felt his silver-haired friend gather what little Leafe he had left, but only understood when Sasame tilted Takako's ashen face upwards and leaned down. Goh's eyes widened.

"Sasame, have you gone crazy?"

He kissed her. It was a kiss of life, a kiss of Leafe, and, unbeknownst to Goh, a kiss of love.

_If I die, I'll die with her sweet taste upon my lips and the sound of her heartbeat in my ears._

Sasame let his Leafe, his life force flow into her. Takako's wounds slowly stopped bleeding, the blush returned to her cheeks, and when Sasame withdrew he could hear a shallow breath in her lungs. Beads of sweat stood out on his faded skin, but there was a smile on his face.

"Takako..." He stroked the side of her face with trembling fingers, and sagged to the ground.

Three specks appeared in the sky, approaching rapidly. Instinct took over control of Goh's body from his frozen mind. Kneeling next to the motionless bodies, he rolled Sasame off of Takako and dragged him a few feet away.

"Sasame! Sasame!" He slapped the Sound Knight's face as the Knights of Wind and Water landed between him and Takako and those of Light and Ice touched down some distance away, running towards their fallen comrade.

"What happened here?"

"Takako!" Hayate was instantly beside her, felt for her pulse, and laid a hand on her chest. "Breathe, Takako. Breathe deeply." he urged, summoning his element.

Goh could only stammer incoherently. "The demon larva - it attacked us, struck us down - She was going to die, but he - he -"

"I fulfilled my duty." The raspy whisper was barely audible. Sasame's unfocused eyes rolled back and fluttered closed before opening again, slowly searching for the Prétear. "Takako... is she... I can't hear, where..."

"She's right here, she's okay."

She weakly wrapped her arms around Hayate's neck.

"I'm glad." Sasame sighed, his eyes drifting closed once more. His skin was the same colour of his hair. Goh panicked.

"Hey, don't do that! Stay with me here, Sasame!"

A faint chuckle that Goh felt more than he heard it escaped Sasame. "I'm not going to fade... if that's what you mean. Not yet... But I'd like to go to sleep now..."

"You idiot, you could have killed yourself!"

Sasame rested his head against Goh's chest. "Takako needed me. She's my Princess... my life... I'm hers... my life is all hers..."

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

**PSAN:** This is a repost, so if it looks familiar, yes, you've probably read this before in a different context.


End file.
